The first thing I saw at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto was a gold ceiling. Walking in through the rotunda, I had the impression I was entering a Byzantine basilica. It …
Every December, Reign restaurant at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto serves a festive dinner, and we booked it for Christmas Day 2025. I hesitated at first. How could a restaurant beat …
Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada, at the base of the CN Tower in Toronto, is a lot of fun, and the Dangerous Lagoon is the best of it. It is the aquarium’s largest …
The first dinosaur at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto stands in Chen Court, before any of the galleries. Its neck rises past the windows of the old brick building, and it …
We spent Christmas 2025 in Toronto at the Shangri-La, in a one-bedroom Deluxe Suite, and it was a true home away from home. The suite was soundproof, comfortable and peaceful, and the …
We stayed at the Shangri-La while we were in Toronto last Christmas, but for decorations, service and festive spirit, the Fairmont Royal York is unbeatable. We went on Christmas night, 25 December …
On December 27th, in the middle of the Distillery Winter Village, we had breakfast at Cluny Bistro & Boulangerie on Tank House Lane, in Toronto’s Distillery District. It is very popular, and …
Toronto is a big city, and big cities can lose the small, warm details of Christmas. Toronto keeps them, and the Distillery Winter Village shows how: a Christmas market set inside a …
I am usually disappointed by airport food, and by airport coffee even more. So Café Flor, on Schiphol’s D pier, was a surprise. We stopped there in May while we waited to …
Some trips to Amsterdam last a single day. A long layover at Schiphol, a cruise ship in port until the evening, a train in from Brussels or Paris: Amsterdam is easy to …
Maria Trip was 20 years old in 1639, from an extremely wealthy Amsterdam family, and she could afford Rembrandt. Standing in front of her portrait at the Rijksmuseum, my honest first thought …
- Amsterdam
The King Who Didn’t Stay: Louis Bonaparte’s Rooms in Amsterdam’s Royal Palace
by Bubblyby Bubbly 6 min readI have already written about the Royal Palace on Dam Square as the town hall it was built to be: the marble Citizens’ Hall, Atlas carrying the heavens, the Vierschaar where death …